blog of the Twin Cities Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

When It Happens, What’s Next? May 1st is Coming! by John O’Reilly

by theorganizertc on April 25, 2017

All over the country, workers are standing up. The rise of Trumpism, combined with the daily attacks on our class by big business, have awoken a sleeping giant. In February, hundreds of thousands of workers participated in the “Day Without an Immigrant,” a mass political strike against the administration. May 1st, International Workers Day, is right around the corner. Where are you going to be on that day?

What’s unique about our role as working people in the economy is that we make the whole thing spin. As the old labor anthem Solidarity Forever goes: “without our brain and muscle, not a single wheel can turn.” Will May 1st be a day when the working class, united across its differences, steps out of the workplace and onto the political arena? Will it be the day that we stop being just the working class by accident of birth or luck, and start being the working class for our own interests?

It’s hard to know, but while we in the IWW welcome the call for May 1st strikes and actions, we also think about the long game. If you and your coworkers strike on May 1st, what will you do on May 2nd? Or May 3rd? We can send a powerful message to the politicians in Washington and St. Paul with our big day of actions, but we can’t shake the foundations of this unjust system with a single day. What we need to do that is a unified working class, taking action at our workplaces and building the power of our class where it really hits the system: profit.

So let’s build hard for May 1st. Talk with your coworkers, talk with your friends, talk with your family. Strike, walk together, break bread with new friends you didn’t know you had in the streets. But don’t forget that what really matters in the long run is what you do on May 2nd and after.